This invention generally relates to trash compactor systems and particularly to trash compactor systems for aircraft or aerospace vehicles.
The handling of large amounts of waste material generated during the flight of passenger-carrying aircraft has long presented a major problem to in-flight service personnel. The introduction of wide-bodied jet aircraft with very high density passenger configurations has exacerbated the problem, not only from an in-flight service point of view but also with respect to flight safety. Current methods of waste disposal on board passenger-carrying aircraft include the use of paperboard boxes and plastic bags in conjunction with trash bins or trash carts which require high volume storage areas. Frequently, when the primary trash storage areas are filled, plastic bags or paper bags with plastic inserts are used to collect excess trash. These excess trash containers are frequently stored during the flight in the galley areas or in lavatories, thereby rendering them unusable for passengers, and even behind the last row of passenger seats or in unused passenger seats. Such filled trash containers are not only unsightly, but they also present a serious risk of on-board fire due to the highly combustible nature of the trash and the possibility that ignition sources may have been introduced into the container along with the trash. An additional safety hazard is created when excess filled trash containers are stored in exit areas because these containers may block or impede egress in emergency situations.
During a typical five-hour flight with statistically average passenger loads on wide-bodied aircraft (e.g., from Hawaii to California or across the continental United States), approximately 20 to 30 cubic feet of trash may be generated. On longer transoceanic routes lasting up to 15 hours, 80 to 120 cubic feet of trash may be generated due to the number of meal, snack, and bar services that are offered.
The trash compactors now available for residential uses are incapable of handling the large volumes of trash generated on board an aircraft within the time constraints for in-flight service. They have neither the power, the space saving capability, nor the cycle time sufficient to meet the in-flight service requirements.
For trash compactors to be used on aircraft, they have to be placed within the galley of the aircraft, or in an easily accessible processing location, such as a closet, or have to be fitted onto rolling carts of the same or similar size as the food and beverage carts used on the aircraft. Thus, such compactors would have to be relatively small, lightweight, and be custom configured to fit in the many appropriate installation locations aboard aircraft and space vehicles. Commercial or industrial trash compactors now available are much too large and heavy for such uses, and they require electrical power not ordinarily available on the aircraft.
During the initial development of trash compactors for aircraft, the present assignees believed that sheet metal panels for the compacting chamber were not desirable because of the added weight. However, available lightweight nonmetallic panels were not found to be very suitable. It was found that the higher compacting pressures applied to the trash by aircraft compactors could drive sharp pointed objects, such as broken glass bottles, through the nonmetallic panels. The damage to the panel would be particularly severe with a low angle of attack toward the panel surface by the pointed object. Such penetration would cause long slashes in the panel thereby structurally weakening the panel so it could no longer properly support the trash container during the compaction of trash thereon.
What has been heretofore unavailable is a trash compactor with lightweight compacting chamber wall which will not be damaged by sharp pointed objects during high pressure trash compaction. The present invention satisfies this need and provides further related advantages.